Forecasters Observe Prescribed Burn near English, IN

On Tuesday, Nov 1st, Linda Gilbert (above left) and Andrea Schoettmer (above right) from NWS Louisville observed a prescribed burn in Hoosier National Forest just southwest of English, IN. Brad Lidell, Forest Engineer, invited the forecasters out to observe the burn. Brad is one representative among many from forests over southern Indiana and central Kentucky that work together with forecasters at NWS Louisville to determine if weather conditions are favorable for prescribed burning. Prescribed burning is planned/controlled burning which is used to eliminate ground litter and aid ecosystems. For more information on prescribed burns, click here. In addition, NWS Louisville and forest representatives work together in determining dangerous fire weather days in which no burning is allowed by anyone due to dry, windy conditions and the risk of uncontrolled wildfires.

Below are pictures of the prescribed burn on Nov 1st at Hoosier National Forest:

The prescribed burn even showed up on radar! In the image below, the blue and green radar returns southwest of English at 2:30 pm EDT are the smoke and debris from the fire that rose high enough off of the ground for the radar to detect. Notice how the plume is oriented from southwest to northeast. This makes sense given the south/southwesterly winds observed yesterday. In later radar scans, weaker radar echoes were observed as far north as Valeene and Hardinsburg. The smoke and debris had mixed out into the air quite a bit before reaching those locations, thus, the weaker radar returns.

Wednesday, Nov 2nd, a prescribed burn lead by Brad Lidell was occurring in Hoosier National Forest between the towns Terry and Dexter. Notice the well defined smoke/debris plume shown in the radar image below.